Fan Casting Brigadier General John Stricker in Defender's Day

Born in Frederick, Maryland, Stricker served in his father’s militia regiment during the Revolutionary War. At age 17, he marched to Princeton with the First Maryland Regiment; for years after that war, Stricker proudly wore a blue Society of Cincinnati Medal, identifying him as one of a small fraternity of officers who had risked everything serving under George Washington. At the onset of the War of 1812, Stricker was in command of the local militia in July 1812 when a mob destroyed the Federal Republican newspaper office and attacked the Federalists defending the organization. Two years later he was the celebrated hero of North Point.